State of the Gaza Strip Border Crossings (01 – 30 July 2018)

Coinciding with the Israeli closure imposed on the Gaza Strip that entered its 12th consecutive year. During the reporting period, the Israeli authorities imposed tight restrictions on the commercial crossings as they closed the only commercial crossing “Karm Abu Salem” and prevented the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip, except for some humanitarian goods, including food and medicine. Furthermore, the Israeli authorities imposed a complete ban on exporting and marketing goods from the Gaza Strip.

As for the Crossings designated for the persons’ movement, the Israeli authorities continue to impose tight restrictions on the movement of the Gaza Strip population through Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing, and narrowly allowing the travel of limited categories. As part of imposing further restrictions on the travel of these categories, the Israeli authorities lately forced some of these categories, particularly students studying abroad and travelers through al-Karama crossing, to travel in buses that carry them from Beit Hanoun Crossing to al-Karama crossing within “shuttle service”, which exaggerated the suffering of these categories and imposed complicated restrictions on their movement.

The Israeli consequent decisions relevant to tightening the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip, completely closing the only commercial crossing Karm Abu Salem, and ban the entry of all types of fuel, gas, goods and basic needs for the Gaza Strip population caused a deterioration of the humanitarian, economic and living conditions for 2 million Palestinians due to the serious effects resulted from these decisions[1].